Parkman describes a typical Iroquois celebration following one of their attacks on their fellow "Native Americans" (an absurd term, inasmuch as no Indians were "native" to America because there was no "America" until white Europeans got here and created it):
"As every public school child knows, the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, when our Pilgrim forefathers took a break from slaughtering Peaceful, Environmentally Friendly, Indigenous Peoples to invite them to dinner in order to infect them with smallpox, before embarking on their mission to fry the planet so that the world would end on Jan. 22, 2031. (Copyright: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)
"Consider this description of the Pilgrims' treatment of the Indigenous peoples:
"They were the worst of conquerors. Inordinate pride, the lust of blood and dominion, were the mainsprings of their warfare; and their victories were strained with every excess of savage passion."
"Except that's not a description of the Pilgrims' treatment of Indigenous peoples. It's a description of some Indigenous people's treatment of other Indigenous peoples, written by the late Francis Parkman, Harvard professor and the world's foremost Indian scholar."
"The Wampanoag, who joined the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving, had a lot to celebrate. Contrary to Hollywood's American-hating rendition of "Pocahontas," in which the Indians feared the "White Demons," the Wampanoag were thrilled with their well-armed white allies, who helped them repel the hated Iroquois and Narragansett.
"The whole reason the Wampanoag were clustered so close to the coast where the Pilgrims encountered them was that the Iroquois had "pursued them with an inveterate enmity. Some (Wampanoag) paid yearly tribute to their tyrants, while others were still subject to their inroads, flying in terror at the sound of the Mohawk war-cry."...
"Real Americans honor Indians and also honor the courageous European settlers who brought Christian civilization to a continent, a miraculous union that we celebrate on this wonderful holiday.
"Happy Thanksgiving!"
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